1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a disc reproducing apparatus which reproduces images or the like recorded on an optical disc such as a digital video disc (DVD), and more particularly to fast forward reproduction or reverse reproduction in a unit of scene in which images recorded on an optical disc are sequentially reproduced.
2. Related Art
In the conventional art, a disc reproducing apparatus is disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei11-288580. In the disclosed apparatus, image data recorded on an optical disc such as a DVD are searched to find out a desired image, and the image is reproduced. In order to perform this, search addresses of plural video titles recorded in a management information area of the optical disc are referred, and only a part of images of the respective recorded video titles is reproduced by intro-reproduction in a unit of title or chapter so that images of the video titles can be checked.
[Problem to be Solved]
In the conventional disc reproducing apparatus, record contents of frames of predetermined intervals are reproduced in a unit of title or chapter. Therefore, a search for an image of a scene which is intended to be seen is influenced by the length of the image of the scene, and the image cannot be efficiently reproduced. Specifically, in the conventional disc reproducing apparatus, when fast forward reproduction or reverse reproduction is performed, images recorded on an optical disc are sequentially reproduced in a unit of title or chapter. Therefore, images cannot be sequentially reproduced in a unit of scene and without being restricted by a title or a chapter. Consequently, it is impossible to find a scene of images recorded on the optical disc and reproduce images of the scene.
The case where images recorded on an optical disc are searched to find out an image of a desired scene will be considered. With respect to a scene which is longer than one frame, frames in which images of the scene are recorded are sequentially skippingly reproduced, so that images of the same scene contents are intermittently displayed. As a result, there arises a disadvantage that a long time period is required for finding the next scene and hence the search cannot be efficiently performed. A scene which is shorter than one frame is skippingly reproduced in an interleaved manner. Therefore, there is another disadvantage that images of such a short scene are jumped over and hence not reproduced. When images of a scene which is shorter than one frame are reproduced, images of the subsequent scene are reproduced only for the remaining time period of one frame, thereby producing a further disadvantage that the contents of the scene are hardly understood. FIG. 4 diagrammatically shows the above-mentioned operation in fast forward reproduction or reverse reproduction in the conventional art example.